1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing control device, a storage medium storing a printing control program, and a printing control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has conventionally been proposed a so-called “pull print” printing system capable of outputting print data from a printing apparatus when a user issues a print request to the printing apparatus for print data temporarily stored in a server (see Japanese Patent No. 4033857). According to the pull print printing system, when printing is executed from an application, a user can output print data not from a specific printing apparatus but from a printing apparatus of his choice. Also, in the pull print printing system, a printer driver running on a client generates print data and transmits the generated print data to a server.
In addition to the pull print printing system, there has also been proposed the following system in a printing environment where different printer drivers are used in a client/server environment. In the printing system, a printer driver running on a client transfers a spool file, to which print setting information required on a server is appended, to the server. A spool association unit on the server that has received the spool file looks up print setting information appended to the spool file and reflects the information to print data (see Japanese Patent No. 4119868).
In the conventional printing system, it is difficult to indicate a change in print setting information when a print request for print data temporarily stored in a server is made from a printing apparatus by a user. Since the format of print data to be temporarily stored in a server is a PDL (Page Description Language) that depends on a printing apparatus, the PDL must be edited as directed by a print setting change. Unfortunately, it is difficult to perform such editing.
Specific examples are provided below. Assume that a user provides instructions about print setting information (hereinafter referred to as “4 in 1”) so as to assign four pages to one page when a print request for print data temporarily stored in a server is made from a printing apparatus by the user. At this time, print data to be temporarily stored in a server, i.e., PDL needs to be changed so as to be compatible with 4 in 1. If PDL is in a raster format which depends on the resolution of a printing apparatus, a raster image needs to be compressed so as to realize 4 in 1, resulting in the occurrence of various quality deficiencies such as vanishing of thin lines or the like.
Since there are a wide variety of PDL specifications, a considerable effort is required for a printing apparatus to be compatible with a plurality of PDLs. If the specifications of PDL have been set to private, PDL cannot even be changed. Furthermore, the fact that PDL cannot be changed may lead to restriction of the type(s) of a printing apparatus(s) when a user provides instructions for storing print data in a server. Consequently, the type(s) of a printing apparatus(s) cannot be freely changed during pull printing.
In order to overcome such difficulties, a printing system is desired such that data can be re-edited on a server. However, the print function specified by a user via a printer driver running on a client is not necessarily supported by a printer driver on a server. An example of such a print function is the function of expanding/reducing an original paper size set by an application installed in a client in accordance with a sheet placed on an actual output printer.
If the function is supported by a printer driver on a server, print data can be printed out without any problems upon transmission of print data to the printer driver on the server, whereas if the function is not supported thereby, print data is output in its original paper size without being subjected to expansion/reduction processing. Even if the expansion/reduction print function itself is supported, a sheet to be expanded/reduced may vary for each printer driver. Thus, if such a sheet is not supported, the print result as expected may still not be obtained.